Part 4​MAKE YOUR OWN COSTUME

NEED: A creative outlet

WANT: The bragging rights that come with "Yeah, I made this myself"

WANT: To enter craftsmanship contests and WIN, BABY!

You like learning. You like making things. You have an eye for detail. You like hoarding materials and have lots of space. You like dripping hot glue on yourself. You like making original renderings of characters or value screen-accuracy. You like torturing yourself.

Remember when we talked about entering costume contests? This is where you get to shine as a costume fabricator. Keep in mind that costume contests often require pre-registration as well as photos of your work-in-progress.

OK BUT NONE OF THESE OPTIONS ARE POSSIBLE FOR ME RIGHT NOW. CAN I STILL COSPLAY?

Part 3COMMISSION A COSTUME

NEED: Special attention to sizing or fit. A costume that isn't already premade and available.

WANT: Someone that is skilled in an area you are unfamiliar with.

The person you approach with a commission should have a good amount of experience in a particular area or several areas: sewing, fabricating, leatherwork, thermoplastics, foamsmithing, etc. How can you tell if they have experience? Well you basically have to vet them and make that determination on a case-by-case basis, which leads me to....

Ask to see their portfolio. If they're taking commission work on a regular basis they will have a portfolio. If they don't, they should at least have photos of work they have made for themselves, friends, or family. If the commissioner can't provide any proof of prior work, look elsewhere.

BUT HOW DO I FIND SOMEONE TO APPROACH WITH A COMMISSION!?

Join some FB commission groups (please let me know of other more so I can expand this list!) Lots of people there are able and willing to get you what you need!

Alternatively, open up Etsy.com and start doing some smart searches. Use short phrases or a combination of keywords. Since Etsy is one of the best handmade markets out there, the choices are many. An Etsy seller that is willing to take on custom work will have a "Request Custom Order" button on their shop's landing page. Also if viewing from a listing, a similar button will be under the listing's product photos. The best part of this is that you can browse many people's shops which also doubles as a portfolio of their work!

OH, IT'S MORE EXPENSIVE THAN I THOUGHT

Custom work can get pricey. The more experience a person has (in any industry if you think about it) the more they value their time. Wouldn't you? They have spend thousands of hours honing their skills and that's why their time and handiwork is worth more then the next person. Cheap commissions can be found, but they are far and few in between. If someone with good cos-cred picks up cheaper work it may be because they have found materials on sale, have them in bulk already, or even simplicity of design. Even then it could still be well above some budgets because there's no *sale* on time. TRUTH.

​IS IT OK TO ASK THEM TO MAKE THE THING AND THEN IF I LIKE IT I'LL BUY IT?

No. Just no. Because the nature of commissions are customization, wanting to see the end result before you really invest a bunch of money is natural. BUT spec work is spec work and we just can't invest the time AND materials into making something you'll hopefully want to pay for when it's finished. This kind of, shall we call it "payment plan" usually gets turned down for those reasons. A very reasonable approach to this is that the commissioner ask for a down-payment or starting deposit to cover materials and time for beginning the commission. This also weeds out the serious commissionees from the non-serious ones, and it really protects both parties by having just enough to be invested into a pricey commission and seeing it to completion.

Other than that, you have to trust that your commissioner is capable. Remember when we talked about researching them? Yes. If they have a large portfolio of historical costumes with a variety of angles, shots, close-ups, and their work looks good, then you can trust they can make you something just as clean and seamless along with all of your other needs met.

THEY OFFERED TO DO IT EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVEN'T WORKED WITH THE TYPE OF MATERIAL BEFORE

Do not take on a commissioner who cannot show previous work with a certain material. Most of us crafty people are skilled in more than one medium, and chances are we can provide proof of that. If someone says "I haven't made anything out of X before but I'm excited to make this for you," just respectfully decline. There's a learning curve for working in a new medium for everyone, not to mention the cost that inevitably comes for buying the needed related tools and supplies specific to that thing.

SO I SHOULDN'T COMMISSION MS. STRICTLY SEAMSTRESS TO MAKE ME SOMETHING OUT OF WORBLA?

I learned a pretty important thing last week on-site at a job. When you're in business for yourself and you make your living designing, crafting, or doing other custom creative work, sometimes you learn things the expensive way. And sometimes you can recoup from it if you know what you're dealing with in terms of still coming out on the profitable side - or maybe just knowing when and where to cut your losses.

So last week my boss and I went to fix a customer's window treatments that had sporadically grown 1/8" to 2/8" of an inch (fabric does some weird things depending on the weaving structure of it; when fabric grows it literally gets longer because it eases as it hangs). It took us 2 hours to undo previous work and fix it. And I'm sure I learned this stuff the 3rd time I took accounting or micro-economics or whatever that soul-sucking, money-vacuuming, major-questioning class was back in '07, but it really wasn't on the this-will-one-day-be-relevant-radar.

How many times did you make a thing only to realize something's on backwards and you have to take the seam ripper to it? Or maybe you ate yourBaconator a little too close to that sateen gown and now there's a big fat grease stain on it. Did you just cringe? And get a little hungry? Oh yeah. #memories

This is the cost associated with what the client initially gets charged for. For you it would includes cost of materials + labor + overhead + profit. (Thaaaaank you Mr. Marcus Lemonis!)

THE FIX-IT COST

If something goes wonky either during the construction process or after the construction is finished, chances are you have to fix it.

Reasons for fixing something include

visible errors,

additional tailoring (some fabrics stretch and some shrink, knowing what to anticipate can save time and $),

something breaks or doesn't hold up to wear,

damaged in transit

etc.? The unicorns were so taken with it they had to mark their territory?

Sometimes this can include additional shipping & handling fees that you will likely have to eat if you're concerned with customer service.

Depending on the industry, charging the client for additional labor due to the above errors is accepted. This is a shady area I don't know much about. If there are additional materials then that should definitely incur an extra charge. It depends. Ask what others in your industry do and take the best advice.

THE OPPORTUNITY COST

This is the money lost because you could have been using your time for another profitable job.

Damn. That's a lot of loss for a mistake. But if it happens, what else can you do? ​